Family Reunion

My guy chillin'

Mom, Me, and Youngest Sis

Emily and Grace

Sammy

Surfer Girl Hailey

My Beautiful Mom

Aunt Launa, Mom, and Aunt Teri

Three amazing, talented, and beautiful women

Jennifer, Marci, and Lori

Me and Jennifer

Sarah, Jake, and Hannah

The Cousins!

Mom and Me with Matching Pedicures (great minds think alike!)

Buried Treasure!

Dad and Grace

Dad and Me

My Aunt Launa and her four girls and their families were visiting from Idaho this week, so we decided we MUST get together. Teri and Mom planned a fun beach barbecue and the weather cooperated giving us a gorgeous, sunny, not-to-hot afternoon at the beach. It was so much fun to see my cousins and their growing families. They are all such amazing women (yes, ALL these cousins are girl...my mom, Launa, and Teri all had four girls!). It was WAY TOO long since we'd gotten together and it was wonderful to catch up. Thanks for the wonderful day! I love my family.

Weenig Week In Review...

Our week started off great with a Family Photo Shoot with my good friend and "oh so" talented photographer Elizabeth. She sent over this sneak peak the same night! I can't wait to see the rest. Despite my being "chubbalicious" at the moment, I KNOW we got some good shots. Then THIS crazy girl made the Varsity Soccer Team at SMHS (as a freshman!) She is SO excited and we are SO proud!

I took my older two to see "Twilight at Midnight". They had both read the books, so being the super cool mom that I am...I let them see the midnight showing (I don't recommend this when you have to get up three hours after getting home to drive Seminary carpool!) We all loved it. It was VERY cheesy and VERY good...just like the books! The best part was sitting in between my two kiddos and eating candy in the middle of the night.

ALL of my boys went camping this weekend up to Julian. I love that Matt is in Scouts with Spencer right now and I am so grateful for the scouting program for my sons. The have an awesome troop with totally with it leaders and they have the best activities.

Friday-Saturday I had the exquisite pleasure of collecting my pee for 24 hours and then taking it into the lab (for the SECOND time!) Nothing is more fun in life than peeing into a cup and then carrying it to the kitchen and pouring it into a big orange jug in your fridge and then carrying that jug into a building and handing it to someone. Hopefully we'll be getting some answers soon so my pee can go where it belongs!

Matt had a bunch of friends over for pizza and the BYU game. I came home from running errands to a houseful of cute men...am I a lucky girl or what? Rachel and I escaped to see "The Secret Life of Bees"...a MUST SEE. We sat and bawled through the whole thing. Seriously, they need to make more good movies like that.

Saturday night was my "much anticipated and oh so needed" date night. We went to the Carlsbad Outlets and lucky me got a new Coach purse courtesy of the best husband in the entire world! Today, however, was the best day of the week. My "favorite" cousins were visiting from Idaho (and Iowa) for a family vacation. Three of the "Kershaw" families met down at Oceanside Harbor and spent the day...I took lots of pictures so today deserves it's own post...more to come!

Look What I Did!

I am "oh so proud" of myself! I would say I'm a dang good cook but the one thing I've never "mastered" is breads. Well...that has now changed. Not only was this artisan loaf beautiful but it tasted SO GOOD! Seriously, it didn't last 5 minutes. There is something about having my kids come home from school to freshly baked bread that makes me feel like a fantastic mother.

Stuck

Since way to many people have told me lately they're "glad I'm okay", I thought I had better update on what is going on with my silly body. After I was given the green light to exercise, I went to the gym and tried to work out. I got on the treadmill and was walking at 3mph; my heart rate immediately shot up to the 150's and peaked at about 195-- WAY TOO high for just walking-normally I'd have to be spinning full speed for an hour to get that high. After monitoring my pulse and another EKG, it turns out I have tachycardia (abnormally high heart rate) as well as high blood pressure so working out is again out of the question. I'm also battling extreme fatigue, headaches, flushing, excessive sweating (lovely),insomnia, shortness of breath, etc. ANYWAY, I still don't have answers. We have ruled out diabetes and thyroid disorders and are are currently testing for various tumors (pheochromocytoma and carcinoid) AND I have the joy of wearing a heart monitor for the next 20 days. What fun. So...the bottom line is I AM CURRENTLY STUCK in this vicious medical cycle and don't have a diagnosis yet. At this point, I don't even care what the diagnosis is...I just want to figure this out so I can start feeling better. I am sure everything is going to be okay eventually; this is just something I have to get through. I so appreciate all your thoughts and prayers..they have helped.

Tag-The Censored Version

Cute Leanna tagged me, so I decided to play along. I this game of tag, you are supposed to go to your fourth folder, find the fourth picture and post it. Totally random. Unfortunately, the 4th picture in my 4th folder was of a subject who just told I had to take the picture off (I personally thought it was a cute picture...but apparently his humiliation was not worth a funny blog post for me!) Anyway, instead you are subjected to a lovely picture of me in braces (at least I was skinny then!) and a three year old Sammy who was scared to death because she was about to ride her first roller coaster! I can't believe how little she looks in this picture. Kids grow up way too fast. *I tag Hillary, Amanda, Rachel, Shayla, and Brooke B.

Good Day

Spencer and I had the opportunity to stand on a street corner this afternoon and proudly wave our Prop 8 signs. Spencer stood on a wall and I told him he looked like Samuel the Lamanite. What a kid...he was so excited to go with me. I personally loved all the honks, thumbs-up, and whistles...the "birds" not so much! Hopefully, all the hard work and prayers are going to pay off tomorrow in the polls. In health news...

In the words of my cardiologist, "we've ruled out anything that's going to make you drop dead." What a relief! All my tests came back normal and my ticker is working just fine. I still have "higher than makes my doctor happy" blood pressure, so we increased my dosage. I see my primary care on Friday to check for asthma, diabetes, and sleep apnea (all of which could be causing the high bp). The good news is, my exercise hiatus is officially over. Phew! Believe it or not, I really miss my mornings at the gym. So, here's to not "dropping dead" anytime soon!!!